The author traces the emergence of national and international efforts toward population education, and suggests that the growing acceptance of its need and the problems revealed in the early efforts have set the stage for a more fundamental and critical appraisal of population education. As a means of identifying issues and problems which will face American educators in the expansion of population education activities in this country, the following five elements involved in any curriculum innovation are discussed as they relate to population education: 1) the nature of the learner; 2) the distinctive features of the body of knowledge relevant for the curriculum; 3) the specific outcomes desired from the innovation; 4) the qualities of the instructional staff; and, 5) the constraints posed by the social characteristics of the school system and its program. Each of these is considered briefly in order to suggest an approach which needs to be employed more exhaustively. Several themes appear throughout the presentation: 1) the need to develop an approach specific to population education rather than a piecemeal adaptation of older patterns; 2) the need for research on background factors as a base for curriculum development; and, 3) the simultaneous development of population education in many parts of the world, with the evident need for means for sharing experiences. (Author/JLB)